28 U.S. Code § 2002 - Notice of sale of realty

A public sale of realty or interest therein under any order, judgment or decree of any court of the United States shall not be made without notice published once a week for at least four weeks prior to the sale in at least one newspaper regularly issued and of general circulation in the county, state, or judicial district of the United States wherein the realty is situated.

If such realty is situated in more than one county, state, district or circuit, such notice shall be published in one or more of the counties, states, or districts wherein it is situated, as the court directs. The notice shall be substantially in such form and contain such description of the property by reference or otherwise as the court approves. The court may direct that the publication be made in other newspapers.

This section shall not apply to sales and proceedings under Title 11 or by receivers or conservators of banks appointed by the Comptroller of the Currency.

A provision making the section applicable to pending proceedings was deleted as obsolete.

Word “under” was substituted for “ordered pursuant to section 847 of this title by” after “A public sale of realty or interest therein”.

Sections 847 and 848, of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., now sections 2001 and 2004 of this title, relate only to sales under orders or decrees, without any reference to sales under judgments. In 1921 the Supreme Court held, in Yazoo & M. V. R. Co. v. City of Clarksdale, 1921, 42 S.Ct. 27, 257 U.S. 10, 66 L.Ed. 104, that such section 847 did not apply to sales under common law executions. At that time such section 849 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., read as it has been revised above, without any reference to such section 847. However, in 1935, such sections 847, 848 and 849 were amended by one act, ch. 77, 49 Stat. 159, and, in such section 849, the words “pursuant to the provisions of this Act” were inserted, but the word “judgment,” though retained in such section 849, was not inserted in such sections 847 and 848. It is probable that Congress did not intend, in 1935 to make such sections 847 and 848 applicable to sales under judgments in law actions. Hence, to make all three sections consistent, the above-mentioned substitution was made.

Reference to circuit was deleted from first and second paragraphs as unnecessary and inappropriate. Publication in a newspaper in a large circuit remote from the county in which the realty is situate, might be wholly insufficient to give notice to interested parties.